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July 6, 2014
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India's global farming
With an increasing number of Indians exploring international cuisines, the business of
exotic vegetables is also growing.
Goutam Das
Follow @Goutam 20 Delhi Edition: July 6, 2014
TAGS: exotic vegetables
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india expotc vegetables
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exotic vegetable business
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First Agro founders K.N. Prasad and M. Nameet (in shorts) grow 38 varieties
of tomatoes, rare peppers from the Caribbean and Peru, Japanese and Thai
greens at their farm in Talakad, Karnataka Photo: Nilotpal Baruah
On a sunny morning, peacocks, march in a procession across a narrow path lined with mulberry trees.
Nearby, cows lazily graze, hens cackle, rabbits squeak and hop, swarming bees hum on a hive, ducks
waddle. In this idyllic 40-acre farm in Patan Kala, Rajasthan, 90 km from Delhi, some of the animals
are for sale. The ducks are not. "The ducks are my natural pest control," says Ayesha Grewal, owner of
the Organic Acres farm. In what way? The ducks feed on mosquito pupae. They also feast on snails
and other pests, protecting the greens and other vegetables the farm produces - 13 varieties of lettuce,
including Boston, Bibb, Lola Rosa and Batavia, white turnips, golden beetroots, Caribbean peppers
such as Scotch Bonnet, asparagus, artichokes, fennel, and Okahijiki, a Japanese land seaweed.
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In India, such produce is "exotic". Until recently, none of these would have been cultivated here. High
street restaurants imported everything - from salad leaves to European vegetables - to dazzle wellheeled customers who paid handsomely for their Arugula and Baby Radish Salad or the Heirloom
Tomato (non-hybrid tomato whose seeds are typically passed down generations) Bruschetta.
Domestic production of exotic vegetables, however, has been growing at a fast clip over the last three
years. Farms catering to exotic greens have mushroomed too - in Manesar, Haryana (near Delhi),
Pune, Bangalore, and Mysore. Their clientele are mostly restaurants in five-star hotels. Some of the CheckModi
Outgovt now setting
the stage for neoproduce is finding their way into retail shops as well.
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Organic Acres grows 42 varieties of salad leaves, 13 of them lettuce, in Rajasthan Photo: Shekhar Ghosh
Grewal, who started farming exotic greens in 2012, sells them through The Altitude Store, her own
retail outlet in Delhi and Gurgaon. Exotics have been flying off her shelves. Her annual growth rate is
between 150 and 200 per cent. According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the market for
exotic is growing at 15 to 20 per cent a year. But most growers, like Grewal, are clocking far higher
growth numbers because of the smaller base.
The reason is not hard to see. The restaurant industry is booming because of the country's young
population, their growing disposable incomes, and a trend towards eating out. There is greater
awareness about international cuisine too. The food services market in India was estimated at $48
billion in 2013 in a study by the National Restaurant Association of India and Technopak. In five years,
that could be worth $78 billion - that is nearly what the Indian IT industry currently exports.
While volumes are picking up, restaurant owners are looking to cut import bills and chefs are exploring
ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the dishes they create. Air transport of food implies higher
energy consumption resulting in carbon emissions.
"Besides carbon footprint, what is becoming important is quality and traceability," says Anupam
Banerjee, Executive Chef at The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bangalore. Banerjee is obsessed with freshness
and quality. "When you source domestically, you know it is not being mass produced, so the quality
tends to be good too," he says. His team makes several trips to First Agro's 45-acre farm in Talakad,
130 km from Bangalore. Serpentine roads lead to the farm, past the river Kaveri, a rocky terrain and the
breathtaking vineyard of Alpine Wineries. The farm is guarded by two Rottweilers, four German
Shepherds, six Labs and a Boxer.
First Agro, which started producing exotic greens in 2011, has adopted 'codex standards' to ensure
toxin- and pesticide-free produce. Its exotics include 38 varieties of tomatoes of all shapes and colours.
A striking purple coloured 'Midnight Blue' tomato stands out against a cloudy horizon. A pepper from
Trinidad called Bishop's Crown, Peruvian chilli called Aji Amarillo, Japanese greens such as Mizuna
and Mitsuba, wild rocket lettuce and Thai greens are some of the farm's significant produce.
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Rare pepper from Trinidad, Bishop's Crown, is crumb-fried with feta cheese in Bangalore's City Bar. The dish is called
UFO Poppers
"Talakad can be the gourmet destination of Karnataka," says M. Nameet, First Agro's Co-founder. At
dusk, as the lanky 37-year-old relaxes with a glass of wine, he often talks to Raghavendra Gowda,
founder of Alpine Wineries, about his vision. The idea of agriculture struck Nameet, a former pilot, when
he was flying in Canada. "I had a lot of free time. So, I started working with farmers and picked up
knowledge on zero pesticide farming," he says. He teamed up with his brother M.V. Naveen and cousin
K.N. Prasad to form the company. While Naveen has worked with IGATE and HP, Prasad was with
Xerox and Wipro. The pilot-techie combo has worked well. The company supplies to nearly all the fivestar restaurants in Bangalore and ships out daily orders worth around 2.5 tonne.
Similarly, there are other entrepreneurs in the exotic green business who had little exposure to the
agriculture sector before. Grewal of Organic Acres has a finance background. Hamsa V., a techie,
started Growing Greens in Bangalore in 2013. The company produces micro greens - plants that are in
their nascent stages of growth and whose size varies between half an inch and two inches. The
company's mustard, sunflower, radish, pea shoots, red beet and carrots are used by chefs to enhance
the visual appeal of their dishes as also their flavour. Some hotels display it on their buffet counters.
All this domestic production means substantial cost savings for restaurants. Exotic lettuce grown in
India could be 30 per cent cheaper than the imported ones. Imported cherry tomatoes can cost Rs
1,000 a kg whereas the domestically produced ones could be priced at Rs 200. While it will always be
difficult to replicate the thick and less acidic pulp produced by San Marzano tomatoes grown in Italy's
volcanic soil, economics and the case for sustainable gastronomy is tilting the scale in favour of local
sourcing.
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